Su Nuraxi di Barumini

Su Nuraxi di Barumini archaeological site was discovered and brought to light by the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu during the 40s and 50s of the twentieth century and due to its uniqueness became part of the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997.

Su Nuraxi, which in Sardinian language means "the nuraghe", takes its name from the most characteristic monument of the Nuragic civilization, which developed in Sardinia over a chronological period of about a thousand years.

The nuraghe, or "pile of stones" and "cavity", indicates a type of fortified architecture, where the truncated cone-shaped towers have circular chambers inside built with rows of large jutting boulders and false dome roofs. Very similar to medieval castles, despite being almost 3000 years older, they were used to defend the surrounding territory.

Su Nuraxi is a complex nuraghe, built mainly in basaltic stone, consisting of a main tower at the center of a bastion with four towers joined by curtain walls and a defence wall with seven towers. It presents a long stratification from the end of the 14th century BC to the 7th century AD
Around the bastion and the defence wall, a village of huts developed and where the life of the community took place, divided into families or clans belonging to different social classes: the warrior class which included the tribal chief, the priestly class and the working class, mainly consisting of farmers and shepherds. Communities also made up of highly skilled builders and expert navigators, who did not live isolated but on the contrary often came into contact with other Mediterranean civilizations, with whom they also carried out commercial exchanges.